Business View Civil & Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 8

51 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8 TOWN OF R I VERHEAD , NEW YORK and pop areas and went to bigger boxes and the internet, so our downtown was struggling.” However, the town board has brought in the public to assist in the planning process while involving the insight of expert consultants, Urban Design Associates, and Barry Long (President and CEO of Urban Design Associates in Pittsburgh), to tackle the project as a team effort. “That plan has been progressing with public participation all through Zoom, surveys, interviews, breakout groups, and many stakeholder meetings we’ve done,” Thomas says. Alongside this project, the town board plans to use its newly adopted Transit-oriented Development (TOD) zoning code to redevelop a vacant, two-acre parking lot into a mixed-use property and revitalize the entire rail access area which connects downtown. “That was a difficult area for us to have blighted and under- invested in for quite a while,” Thomas says. She explains that the re-construction will draw more investment into the downtown – now a federal Opportunity Zone. Progress on project planning is steadily moving ahead after the town board Riverside Town Center Redevelopment Project Riverside Town Center Redevelopment Project